The Effectiveness of Intervention to Reduce Blood-Borne Pathogen Exposure Incidents in Healthcare Workers in the Largest Clinical Setting in Slovenia Cover

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The Effectiveness of Intervention to Reduce Blood-Borne Pathogen Exposure Incidents in Healthcare Workers in the Largest Clinical Setting in Slovenia

Slovenian Journal of Public Health

Volume 64 (2025): Issue 2 (June 2025)

By: Nevenka ŠESTAN , Lijana ZALETEL-KRAGELJ and Alenka FRANKO

Open Access

|Feb 2025

Figures & Tables

Annual incidence risk (per 100 staff) of reported blood-borne pathogen exposure incidents in healthcare workers at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2008-2022.

Annual incidence risk (per 100 staff) of reported blood-borne pathogen exposure incidents in healthcare workers at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2008-2022, in A) males, and B) females.

Annual incidence risk (per 100 staff) of reported blood-borne pathogen exposure incidents in healthcare workers at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2008-2022, in A) medical doctors/dental medicine doctors, B) nurses, C) nurse assistants, and D) other healthcare workers.

Annual incidence risk (per 100 staff) of reported blood-borne pathogen exposure incidents in healthcare workers at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2008-2022, in observed departments/divisions: A=Internal Medicine, B=Surgery, C=Neurology, D=Stomatology, E=Infectology, F=Dermatovenerology, G=Otorhinolaryngology, H=Gynaecology/Obstetrics, I=Ophthalmology, J=Paediatrics.

Annual incidence (per 100 incidents) of reported blood-borne pathogen exposure incidents in healthcare workers at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2008-2022, due to A) sharps incidents, B) splashes into eyes, C) skin contact with potentially infectious materials, and D) other causes.

Healthcare workers employed at University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2008-2022, by gender, occupation and division/department_

Group	Year
Group	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
All	5198	5279	5257	5513	5520	5496	5596	5696	5871	5807	5921	5861	5870	5934	5837
GENDER
Males	1092	1109	1104	1157	1159	1154	1175	1216	1274	1149	1185	1340	1163	1202	1204
Females	4106	4170	4153	4356	4361	4342	4421	4480	4597	4658	4736	4521	4707	4732	4633
OCCUPATION
MDs/DMDs	1308	1256	1191	1211	1184	1160	1171	1206	1240	1264	1331	1482	1520	1547	1537
Nurses	3198	3232	3272	3454	3491	3509	3589	3651	3777	3793	3818	3680	3622	3642	3547
Nurse assistants	105	199	208	216	215	211	216	219	225	227	231	219	209	210	204
Other occupations	587	592	586	632	630	616	620	620	629	523	541	480	519	535	549
DIVISION/DEPARTMENT
Internal Medicine	1014	1035	1003	1052	1074	1084	1106	1133	1178	1205	1235	1189	1076	1170	1181
Surgery	1563	1570	1588	1645	1641	1658	1674	1727	1782	1785	1781	1763	1584	1696	1693
Neurology	239	267	266	268	294	288	296	308	319	331	334	344	310	325	331
Stomatology	78	69	72	73	71	68	66	67	69	68	76	75	69	69	74
Infectology	213	217	209	245	245	253	257	266	280	270	277	268	774	298	279
Dermatovenerology	69	67	66	71	69	60	66	66	67	67	69	75	62	73	73
Otorhinolaryngology	123	118	116	128	128	127	132	137	137	141	144	151	137	132	128
Gynaecology/Obstetrics	504	492	495	498	486	459	480	477	466	481	496	482	438	472	467
Ophthalmology	149	146	147	155	152	151	152	149	154	162	171	170	156	171	173
Paediatrics	445	451	444	439	446	429	436	430	431	423	432	428	404	494	499
Other	801	847	851	939	914	919	931	936	988	874	906	916	860	1034	939

Distribution of reported blood-borne pathogen exposure incidents due to selected causes in healthcare workers at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2008-2022_

Cause	Year
Cause	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Sharp device	82	93	105	95	120	125	113	119	101	140	112	97	72	88	59
Splash into eye	3	8	8	3	5	6	12	8	6	9	6	5	6	8	6
Skin contact	0	3	2	4	2	3	2	1	2	3	7	3	1	0	0
Other causes	1	2	0	1	5	1	4	6	0	7	6	11	21	3	7

The number of reported blood-borne pathogen exposure incidents in healthcare workers at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2008-2022, by gender, occupation and division/department_

Group	Year
Group	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
All	86	106	115	103	132	135	131	134	109	159	131	116	100	99	72
GENDER
Males	10	28	19	24	26	27	27	27	26	49	39	33	13	18	20
Females	76	78	96	79	106	108	104	107	83	110	92	83	87	81	52
OCCUPATION
MDs/DMDs	20	25	17	21	28	29	34	32	33	41	35	32	24	28	23
Nurses	40	57	57	51	65	72	51	62	45	72	61	66	59	47	29
Nurse assistants	15	10	12	11	17	13	10	7	5	17	10	6	11	10	3
Other occupations	11	14	29	20	22	21	36	33	26	29	25	12	6	14	17
DIVISION/DEPARTMENT
Internal Medicine	22	18	28	30	27	34	17	21	21	29	44	27	37	16	19
Surgery	21	50	45	33	55	53	61	56	42	69	38	48	36	31	18
Neurology	1	3	7	3	4	7	2	13	6	10	8	7	3	6	5
Stomatology	6	4	4	9	8	7	5	11	9	6	7	7	1	4	5
Infectology	1	0	9	8	10	4	7	1	0	6	2	1	0	3	7
Dermatovenerology	0	0	0	2	0	2	2	0	0	2	1	0	1	1	0
Otorhinolaryngology	3	6	2	5	1	4	2	2	3	1	2	2	1	3	0
Gynaecology/Obstetrics	6	9	7	3	8	6	5	8	7	9	5	9	9	7	3
Ophthalmology	4	0	2	1	4	5	7	4	6	4	5	4	3	4	3
Paediatrics	1	2	0	1	6	4	1	3	5	3	3	3	0	6	2
Other	21	14	11	8	9	9	22	15	10	20	16	8	9	18	10

Trend of annual incidence risk of reported blood-borne pathogen exposure incidents in healthcare workers at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, by gender, occupation and division/department in two predefined periods_

HCW GROUP	2008-2017		2017-2022
HCW GROUP	b	p	b	p
GENDER
Males	NA	NA	NA	NA
Females	0.038	0.258	-0.197	0.011
OCCUPATION
MDs/DMDs	0.181	<0.001	-0.335	0.007
Nurses	0.010	0.769	-0.185	0.021
Nurse assistants	NA	NA	NA	NA
Other occupations	0.334	0.015	NA	NA
DIVISION/DEPARTMENT
Internal Medicine	-0.034	0.605	-0.269	0.254
Surgery	0.144	0.093	-0.440	0.023
Neurology	0.221	0.089	-0.293	0.071
Stomatology	NA	NA	NA	NA
Infectology	NA	NA	NA	NA
Dermatovenerology	0.187	0.308	-0.388	0.167
Otorhinolaryngology	-0.254	0.099	-0.043	0.845
Gynaecology/Obstetrics	0.037	0.420	-0.130	0.386
Ophthalmology	0.270	0.081	-0.168	0.089
Paediatrics	0.076	0.130	-0.020	0.862

Statistical description of annual incidence risk of reported blood-borne pathogen exposure incidents in healthcare workers at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2008-2022_

Group	MEDIAN	MIN-MAX	Q1-Q3	p
GENDER
Males	2.22	0.92-4.26	1.66-2.46	0.803
Females	1.87	1.12-2.49	1.81-2.36
OCCUPATION
MDs/DMDs	2.16	1.43-3.24	1.58-2.65	<0.001
Nurses	1.63	0.82-2.05	1.29-1.79
Nurse assistants	5.03	1.47-14.29	3.20-6.16
Other occupations	3.41	1.16-5.81	2.50-4.95
DIVISION/DEPARTMENT
Internal Medicine	2.27	1.37-3.56	1.74-2.85	<0.001
Surgery	2.72	1.06-3.87	2.01-3.24
Neurology	1.85	0.42-4.22	1.12-2.43
Stomatology	8.82	1.45-16.42	5.80-11.27
Infectology	1.01	0.00-4.31	0.37-2.72
Dermatovenerology	0.00	0.00-3.33	0.00-2.82
Otorhinolaryngology	1.52	0.00-5.08	0.78-2.44
Gynaecology/Obstetrics	1.48	0.60-2.05	1.04-1.83
Ophthalmology	2.47	0.00-4.61	1.73-2.92
Paediatrics	0.69	0.00-1.35	0.23-0.93

Trend of annual incidence of reported blood-borne pathogen exposure incidents due to selected causes in healthcare workers at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia in two predefined periods_

Cause	2008-2017		2017-2022
Cause	b	p	b	p
Sharp device	0.052	0.076	-0.247	0.007
Splash into eye	0.006	0.329	-0.004	0.502
Contact of skin	0.000	0.880	-0.018	0.081
Other causes	0.008	0.133	NA	NA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjph-2025-0010 | Journal eISSN: 1854-2476 | Journal ISSN: 0351-0026

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Language: English

Page range: 73 - 84

Submitted on: Aug 29, 2024

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Accepted on: Dec 18, 2024

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Published on: Feb 28, 2025

Published by: National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

Keywords:

Occupational incidents,

Large clinical setting

Related subjects:

Clinical medicine,

Hygiene and environmental medicine

© 2025 Nevenka ŠESTAN, Lijana ZALETEL-KRAGELJ, Alenka FRANKO, published by National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

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